Thanks Patrick and Derek:

Patrick: I live in Florida, so I definitely welcome any plumbing setup that would exclude heat from existing in the core when the valve is shut off!

That is a good point to consider that if the flow goes into the valve directly from the engine that the heat might shorten the valve's life. Hmmm...

Derek: I did consider that alternate setup you had suggested...but from what I understand, the flow is supposed to go into the curved valve pipe, going out of the straight one. But I will definitely avoid causing any hose stress with bending, twisting, etc.

Worse comes to worse, I'll just follow the original setup if all else fails. Maybe I would just add extra firewall padding around the heater housing under the dash!

-DS